Celebration of success and positive media mentions act as drivers for improvement in the primary care sector. This is the conclusion after a survey among participants in the programme “In Safe Hands”. The programme started in five Danish municipalities in 2013, and is currently being spread to another 13 municipalities. The programme introduces improvement methods in the primary care.
The survey was conducted among 165 participants of “In Safe Hands”’ learning seminar 5 (November 2015). Response rate was 59 % (97 respondents). The respondent were 43 health care workers (nurses, nursing assistants, physiotherapist), 42 leaders/middle managers and 12 employees from the municipality administrations.
72 % of the respondents had participated in celebrating a positive result of the improvement work. Of those more than 95 % agreed, that celebrations can cause a range of positive effects:
Celebrating a success of the improvement work…
- creates a feeling of togetherness, and the sense of working for a common cause (98 %)
- increases joy of work and the motivation to work for further improvements (97 %)
- boosts the sense of professional pride (98 %)
Also articles in the media with positive mentions of improvement success, motivates for continuous improvement. Articles could be about long periods of time without pressure ulcers in a nursing home, or fewer adverse medical events in a home care district.
90 % of the respondents experienced some form of positive media coverage of their efforts in “In safe hands”, including in public news media, professional journals, municipality websites and newsletters and the “In safe hands”-website.
Of the 90 % the great majority agreed, that media coverage has a range of positive effects on the improvement effort:
Positive mentions in the media
- creates a feeling of togetherness, and the sense of working for a common cause (97 %)
- increases joy of work and the motivation to work for further improvements (95 %)
- boosts the sense of professional pride (95 %)
Only 4 % of the respondents agreed that media mentions had no significance.
The survey asked, what media the respondents would prefer to be mentioned in, if they could choose freely. Local media like webpages, newsletters or staff magazines was rated highest, followed by professional magazines, and local and regional public media. Social media and national public media was rated lower.
